This qualitative cross-case study explores gifted adolescents' perspectives on motivation in learning as a means to better understand their complex motivational and academic needs. Participants consisted of 6 students, ranging in age from 11 to 16, identified as gifted through holistic measures including cognition scores, interviews, and other…

To combat the inevitable intellectual fatigue that autobiographical essay assignments often engender and, more importantly, to provide students with an authentic audience and purpose for their writing, the author designed an autobiographical assignment that liberates students from the traditional essay format while empowering them to envision…

As WPAs at a research institution without a WAC program, we embarked on this project to learn about the types of writing prompts faculty across the disciplines assign and their expectations for student writing. Although our first-year composition program is genre-based and focuses on teaching for transfer, we did not know what genres other faculty…

The French film "Entre Les Murs" ("The Class") is a somewhat unusual film in its portrayal of a Parisian working class school and its protagonist, Mr. Marin, who attempts to teach an unruly class of young and very diverse teenagers. This article explores the ways the author used the film "The Class" as a culminating…

Several of the key measures in this year's Student Academic Experience Survey have moved in a positive direction, but these movements have tended to be relatively small. Value-for-money perceptions have improved, but not statistically significantly, while there has been no change in the proportion who would choose the same course and institution…

At universities where introductory physics labs are taught by graduate student teaching assistants (TAs), there is a need for specialized professional development for those TAs. This paper presents a specific instantiation of a model for lab TA professional development that uses a combination of cognitive apprenticeship and expectancy-value…

After two demanding years for everybody in higher education, and particularly for students, it is encouraging to see that in most parts of the UK, undergraduates are beginning to see better value-for-money, and fewer students are reporting poor or very poor value from their academic experience. With much more frequent 'face-to-face' teaching,…

Demonstrating the ability to collaborate effectively is essential for students moving into 21st century workplaces. Employers are expecting new hires to already possess group-work skills and will seek evidence of their ability to cooperate, collaborate, and complete projects with colleagues, including remotely or at a distance. Instructional…

Many of the headline findings reflected in this year's Student Academic Experience Survey (SAES) 2021 will be disappointing to the sector, though perhaps not entirely unexpected. The 2021 SAES was offered to over 47,000 undergraduate students in the United Kingdom (UK) and took place between 2 February 2021 and 22 March 2021, with all four parts…

Mathematisation of realistic situations is an on-going focus of research. Classroom data from a Year 9 class participating in a program of structured modelling of real situations was analysed for evidence of Niss's theoretical construct, implemented anticipation, during mathematisation. Evidence was found for two of three proposed aspects. In…

Since 2006 (with the exception of 2013), the "Student Academic Experience Survey" has been designed and developed in partnership between the Higher Education Policy Institute and the Higher Education Academy (HEPI-HEA). The Survey has become one of the major surveys within the UK higher education landscape, providing insight into how…

Although previous research has linked students' expected grades to numerous pedagogical variables, this factor has been all but ignored by instructional communication scholars. In the present study, 315 undergraduates were presented with grading scenarios representing differing combinations of course rigor, teacher immediacy, and student…

Students in an eighth-grade, urban, low-achieving reading class were introduced to critical literacy through engagement in Image Theatre. Developed by liberatory dramatist Augusto Boal, Image Theatre gives participants the opportunity to examine texts in the triple role of interpreter, artist, and sculptor (i.e., image creator). The researchers…

A case study on the teaching of writing, this paper discusses what motivates students in a freshman writing course to complete increasingly difficult writing assignments. The study provides a glimpse into how one class of freshman students developed positive expectations for writing a paper about a difficult poem by helping each other map…

Accounting educators struggle with ways to incorporate the development of critical thinking and communication skills into the curriculum. Case analysis is one tool for developing these skills. We examine whether students' case analysis scores improve as a result of participation in peer grading and peer review. We find that students improve their…